Black Genie
by PudgeyGuy
Summary: Based on the episode in which Cordelia wishes that Buffy never moved to Sunnydale. Oz and Buffy team up and capture two vampires in hopes at getting to the Master...
1. Default Chapter

Set in the Alternate Universe in which the Master rules most of Sunnydale and Vamp Willow and Xander are his loyal henchmen.   
  
Summary: Buffy and Oz fight the Master at the warehouse *much like the episode except for a few changes*  
  
The Master had her, his pale claws like vice grips on her neck. Buffy struggled fiercely against the king of vampires. His fangs slid down over his lips and he opened his mouth wide…  
  
The sounds of battle were deafening. The White Hats and vampires combated ferociously, meeting like darkness and light incarnate. Giles, the school librarian and rebel leader, led the charge against the Master's forces. He was valiant, swinging a spiked mace with deadly accuracy. He crushed the skull of a vamp, then turned to smash the leg of another from behind him. Oz, one of his more brave warriors, staked the downed vampire and continued on. He saw a red headed vampire materialize. He knew her as Willow, the most lethal of the Master's hordes.   
  
"Capture her Oz, but don't kill her!" Giles commanded. The brown haired boy nodded and approached the leather clad vampress.   
  
"Aw, is little Oz going to stake me?" she teased, a look of mock fear on her pale face. "How cute," she vamped out and pounced on him. Oz ducked beneath her, grabbed her arm, and lifted his back, sending Willow crashing to the floor.  
  
"Ow!" she gasped. "That did *not* feel good." she pouted, flipping back to her feet to face the White Hat. "You people are like ants crawling up the leg of the Master. Just a nuisance. It's a matter of time before Sunnydale is completely ours, then the world." she smiled wickedly, her blood red lips pointed and parted to reveal her fangs.   
  
"How Dr. Evil of you." Oz said as he lifted his stake. Willow lashed out with her fist, catching Oz in the face and breaking his nose. He cried out, blood spraying and flowing down his face. He blindly charged into Willow, backing her up against a wooden crate. He held up the stake and plunged it down into her stomach. She gasped and looked at him in shock, then at the ragged, grisly wound. She drew back her head and brought it down upon his forehead. Oz stumbled backwards and slipped on a puddle of blood, the blood of his comrades. He fell hard, the breath rushing from his lungs. Willow staggered a few feet, trying to get the stake out. Oz could tell she was weakening. He got up and grabbed a lock of coppery red hair. He brought up his knee and smashed her face in. He drove his fists into the tender area around the stake wound, eliciting growls and shrieks from Willow. She kicked at him, but the small boy grabbed her ankle and twisted it, sending her face first into the cement floor.   
  
"Hey, why don't I pick on somebody that's not my size?" Oz whirled around to see Xander, the Master's other lackey. He was about to approach Xander when a wooden splinter the size of Oz's arm pierced the vamp's side from behind. Xander turned to cuff the White Hat in the face, then howled as Oz found a discarded lead pipe and bludgeoned Xander with it. He fell alongside Willow, both badly hurt but alive. At least, as alive as vampires can be.   
  
"Thanks Craig," Oz said to the fellow White Hat. The taller boy nodded and pointed to Buffy.  
  
"She needs our help."   
  
"You stay here and watch these two," Oz ordered. He withdrew a steel crucifix from his belt and hurried over to the Slayer and the Master…  
  
"Your blood…will make me invincible…" the Master said in ecstasy. He licked his pale crimson lips as he dipped his head to Buffy's neck. Buffy drove her heel up into the vampire king's face, followed by a fist to the left eye. Her knuckles cut his aged skin and let cold blood flow into his eye, rendering him momentarily blind. Before Buffy could follow up, Oz came with a metal cross, brandishing it in the Master's visage. He snarled and swiped at Oz as his flesh sizzled. Buffy blocked the blow for Oz, as the White Hat clicked on the top of the crucifix, causing a slim blade to slide out of the bottom. He slashed at the vampire's face, lacerating it with bloody lines and gaping cuts. Buffy lashed out with a booted foot, making the Master crash into a conveyor belt. He leapt on and grabbed onto a hanging chain. He deftly climbed it and called out: "Retreat my children! This battle is over!" he glared down upon Buffy and Oz, his eyes smoldering and his thin lips curled into a sneer. "Next time we meet I shall smear the walls with your blood."   
  
"He was talking to you right?" Oz asked the Slayer. The vampires receded as one like a dark wave. They all spilled out of the warehouse and the Master disappeared through the skylights. The remaining White Hats gathered around the Slayer and Oz.   
  
"This shall be a milestone in the taking back of Sunnydale." Giles proclaimed. He removed his glasses and cleaned them, then surveyed the scene. The corpses of young White Hats mingled with the ashes of dead vampires. His heart was suddenly too heavy in his chest and he heaved a sigh. Quietly, he said, "Pity that the milestone must be cemented with innocent blood."  
  
"Hey boss man, what do you want with these?" Craig asked, holding a cross bow at Willow and Xander. The two vampires fixed the humans with a scathing glance.   
  
"Kill them," Buffy said, taking the steel crucifix from Oz and walked over to them.  
  
"No, wait!" Giles called, stepping in front of the Slayer.   
  
"For what?" she asked. "They're vamps, and I kill them. There's no discussion. Why are we discussing?"   
  
"No, they possess valuable information that will be vital to our cause. Information that, if used properly, will lead you to destroy the Master." Giles said.  
  
"You're clever, Old Guy." Buffy admitted. She passed the weapon back to Oz. "Nice design. Think you can get me one?" "Sure." Oz said, strapping it back to his belt loop. "Just five ninety nine shipping and handling."  
  
Buffy nodded, a gesture that Oz took as 'I'm amused, I just don't laugh'.   
  
"Eh, yes. Now, let's gather the bodies and head back to the school," Giles said. Oz couldn't help but notice the heavy note in the librarian's voice. It would be easier if they were *just* bodies, if they didn't know their names. If they didn't know that the one with her neck snapped into an impossible angle was Samantha, an aspiring artist who will now never get to showcase her amazing talent in a gallery. If they didn't know that the man who lay with unseeing eyes was Chris, a photographer and brother of two little angels.   
  
After the White Hats wrapped their dead in white sheets and loaded them into the van, Oz approached Buffy.  
  
"Hey, do you need a place to crash?"  
  
"Wouldn't your folks mind if you brought home a deviant girl?" Buffy smirked, her nose ring jangling a bit.   
  
"I'll never know. The Master killed them."   
  
Buffy's smirk melted and hardened.   
  
"Sorry 'bout that. Thanks for the invite. Don't have any money for a hotel anyway."   
  
"Well that's good news," Giles said, rejoining them. "Would you mind holding Willow and Xander at your house, seeing as the Slayer would be staying with you?" "Sure, the more the merrier. Can we slap them around a bit?" Oz asked hopefully. "Yes," Giles said seriously, then turned to leave.   
  
"He seems like a nice guy," Buffy said, jerking her thumb in the librarian's direction. "A little stiff but nice."  
  
"Yeah, Giles is a good man. Now should we hog tie these two or just beat them into subservience?"  
  
"I opt for choice B."  
  
The two vampires hissed as the Slayer and White Hat neared them with sadistic grins on their faces and crosses in their hands. 


	2. Bad Cop & Bad Cop

Chapter Two: Bad Cop Bad Cop  
  
Summary: Buffy and Oz try to persuade Willow and Xander to give out the Master's secrets.   
  
Disclaimer: You know the routine.   
  
Buffy clicked the padlock and secured the chains. She gave it a tug and nodded, content. Oz was sprawled on the couch in the living room, headphones blasting music that the Slayer could hear even from her position down the hall. She leaned at the threshold leading out of the common room and said,  
  
"Knife Party, by Deftones."  
  
Oz turned to her, removing his head set swiftly.  
  
"Sorry it was loud." then his brows knitted. "You know the 'tones?"   
  
"Doesn't everybody?" she shrugged and fell into a single seat, her knee propped over the arm of the chair. She looked around. "Nice place. It's almost homey."  
  
"I have Martha Stewart to thank for that." Oz said, turning off his C.D. Player. He looked to the broad window behind him. "It's nearing dawn. I'm beat. There's a spare room upstairs if you want it. I set out the blankets and pillows already."  
  
"Thanks mom." Buffy teased. Oz flushed and left the Slayer.   
  
"Hey Osborne," she called. The brown haired boy returned, head poking in the doorway.   
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks for saving me back there. Even though I coulda taken that Master guy myself."  
  
Oz shrugged.  
  
"Whatever." he was about to leave again when Buffy stood up.   
  
"What's with the Houdini act?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You keep disappearing when I try to talk to ya." she punched him on the shoulder. "C'mon, scared of a girl?"  
  
"Terrified," he replied dryly. He sighed. "What do you want to talk about?"  
  
The Slayer shrugged, fingering her nose ring. She leaned against the railing and looked up at Oz.   
  
"Why is this town such a hell hole?"  
  
"Hell Mouth."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sunnydale is built on a Hell Mouth. The center of evil if you will." Oz said this rotely, remembering all the lessons Giles had bestowed upon him when the Harvest reached its bloody fruition.   
  
"Well that explains the baddies runnin' around like they own the place."  
  
"They do, at night anyway. No one is safe anymore. At six p.m. we all lock our doors and bar our windows. Well, not all of us. Giles and our group, the White Hats, fight when the sun sets. We pull a Clark Kent, mild mannered high school student by day, vampire hunter by night. A lot of good people died since the Master was released."  
  
"Where did he come from? That guy with the kool-aid mustache?"  
  
"He was banished underground for hundreds of years until the Harvest. That night, he escaped his prison and went on a killing spree. My parents didn't even know what hit them." Oz gnashed his teeth. His usually   
  
placid façade was broken by anguish and rage. Buffy looked down, knowing that such a display of emotion shouldn't have an audience. She quickly changed the subject.  
  
"And the two downstairs?"  
  
"Oh, them. They're the Master's favorites. The red head's Willow and the smart ass is Xander. They've killed more of us than the Master has. It's pretty rad that we have them penned up in my basement."  
  
"Got any beer?" Buffy asked. Oz looked at her, knocked off by the sudden change of topic. "Uh, sorry. I'm alcohol free."  
  
"Aren't you a little boy scout." she scoffed, walking into the kitchen. Oz followed her. He sat atop his kitchen counter and watched as the Slayer raided his kitchen. She was cute, in a 'don't-look-at-me-or-I'll -kick-your-ass' kind of way. She wore army fatigues with tall combat boots, strings tightly laced. A simple white halter top showed much of her muscles and tattoos. Her eyes, beautiful emeralds, were lined in heavy eye liner. Rings adorned her fingers, which added precious more hurt to her blows. She seemed almost too emaciated for her line of work, but she proved herself tonight. She did face the Master and survived. Too few can own that claim.   
  
"What about you? Where did you come from? What's this whole Slayer gig?"   
  
Buffy dropped a bottle of Mystic Arbor, the glass shattering and splashing the floor. "Whoa, are you ok?"  
  
Oz hopped off the counter and reached out an arm to Buffy.  
  
"Don't touch me," she said severely. "I-I don't like talking about my past." she walked past him, muttering an apology about the mess and ascended upstairs. Oz looked at the floor and sighed.  
  
"Why don't I get any nice house guests?" he wondered aloud as he bent to clean up the tile floor.  
  
***  
  
They awoke the next morning at eight a.m. Buffy undid the padlock and removed the heavy chains. Going into the basement, they saw Xander and Willow huddled in a corner. They were not cowering like trapped animals, but nursing each other with infusions of each other's dead blood. The pale yellow glow of the naked light bulb was the only source of light in the basement, as the window was draped with a heavy tarp.   
  
"You know, it's not so bad having you vamps here." Oz said, inspecting the basement. "Took care of the rat problem I see." Buffy came past him to sit at the foot of the steps. She watched the two vampires as the undead ones glared at her. The Slayer held a cigarette up and a lit a match using the bottom of her boot. The bright flare made Xander wince. She touched the flame to the cigarette but didn't bring it to her lips.   
  
"These things can kill you." she said, standing up and approaching Xander. She crouched in front of him and pressed the burning end to his cheek, right beneath his right eye. Xander grunted and Willow hissed, trying to claw at the Slayer. Her shackles kept the blond girl safe.   
  
"Wanna tell me where the Master is shacking up?" Buffy asked Xander, holding his face with her hand. The male vampire put on his game face and his feral yellow eyes bore holes into Buffy.   
  
"You'd have better luck telling a gay man that flannel is the new plaid." he chuckled.   
  
"Can I kill her now?" Willow pouted. Xander turned to his mate and took the protruding lower lip between his teeth and sucked on it.   
  
"Don't you want to play with it first?"  
  
"Hello! I'm right here!" Buffy waved. Willow and Xander turned their glowing, aurum eyes on her.   
  
"Oh please, that won't scare me. I have the same contacts in my book bag. Now, once again: where is the Master?"  
  
"Eat me," Willow said seductively. Buffy drew back her arm and cuffed the vampire across the face. The dark haired vamp growled protectively, struggling fiercely against his restraints. Buffy flicked the cancer stick away.  
  
"Obviously this isn't working. Oz, the acid please." the brown haired boy came down the steps, a beaker of green liquid sloshing inside.  
  
"There's no point to this boys and girls." Xander said. "The Master will find us, kill all you White Caps and dance on your bones."   
  
"White *Hats*" Oz corrected, handing the acid to Buffy.   
  
"Whatever," the male vampire made an elaborate head motion. Willow burrowed her pale face into the crevice of his shoulder, smelling the blood-stained leather. She clamped a hand over where the steak used to be and made a pained noise.  
  
"Xander, I'm not feeling spiffy." she whined.   
  
"Now look at what you gone and did." Xander looked at them accusingly. "She's not feeling the spiffiness."  
  
Buffy held up the container.  
  
"I'm about to make her feel a lot worse if you don't tell me what I need to know. Their faces remained defiant. Oz whispered in Buffy's ear.  
  
"Maybe we should separate them, to see if they're lying."   
  
"Should we play Good Cop Bad Cop?" the Slayer asked enthusiastically.   
  
"How 'bout we're both the bad cop?" Oz suggested. Buffy looked meaningfully at the vampire captives. "Sounds chill to me." 


	3. Interrogations and Ju Ju Beans

Chapter Three: Interrogations and Ju Ju Beans  
  
Summary: Oz and Buffy interrogate the vamps separately. But things don't go as they planned…  
  
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon…blah blah…not mine…*mumbles*   
  
Oz circled the bed to which Willow was shackled to. She was spread eagle on the stripped mattress and the White Hat almost objected to having her treated like an animal.   
  
*But she is an animal,* he kept telling himself. *It doesn't matter that she has such sad eyes, or that she can feel pain and cries…* Oz mentally cursed himself.   
  
"Are you going to talk to yourself all day or are you going to beat me into telling you where Big Daddy is hiding?" Willow said patronizingly.   
  
"Don't tempt me," Oz warned. Willow arched her back, milky white cleavage heaving.  
  
"You're right, tempting is *my* job." she smirked wickedly, and Oz felt his knees buckle.   
  
*I can't possibly like her! She's like, all evil and argh and such. Just do what you have to do Oz.*  
  
  
  
The White Hat turned away, going to the night stand where upon the beaker of acid sat. He took a seat and dragged it beside the bed.   
  
"You're a vampire, you can't die from a little bit of acid. But I can guarantee that it'll be worst than a suntan." he smiled mirthlessly. "Or you can just tell me what I want to know."  
  
Willow rested her head on her shoulder, green blue eyes looking straight into Oz's brown ones.   
  
"You have no upper lip, did you know that?" the vampire pointed out. Surprised *and self conscious*, Oz touched a finger to his lips, then his hand slapped down on the counter as he realized he was off task. "But you have nice hair." she said, her full lips half parted. Oz suddenly wondered what it would be like to kiss a vampire. Would it be cold, hot? Would she bite him? *HULLO! Wake up Oz-Man! She's doing the whole look-into-my-eyes bit! You're smarter than this.*  
  
The White Hat splashed the acid on her face and stormed out of the room, the shrieks of purest pain and agony escaping the melting lips of the vampress he was falling in love with.   
  
***  
  
"Ya know, I used to be into that whole vampire scene," Buffy was telling Xander in the basement. She sauntered over to the window. She leaned against the leather tarp and looked at the male vampire. His aurum eyes never left her face. "What stopped you?" he asked disinterestedly.   
  
"I like the sun." she replied simply, pulling on the leather blanket. Sunlight flooded the room and Xander howled in horror and anguish. At the same time, Willow above was screaming at a frightened pitch. Buffy closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, basking in the radiance of the sun. She placed the tarp back upon the windowsill and waved her hand, trying to disperse the smell of burning flesh. "You guys are just candidates for skin cancer aren't ya?" the Slayer walked over to the cowering vampire, huddling in the corner and managing to avoid the full exposure of the lethal light. Feeling Buffy near, he squirmed and clawed at his chains frantically. "This is fun," Buffy said, her voice light and even chipper. "I haven't even begun to torment you."   
  
"Get away from me," he hissed.   
  
"Gladly. I'm not partial to Ode Du Vampire." she scrunched up her little nose. "So won't you help me out and spill on your boss' whereabouts?"   
  
"Go to hell," Xander faced her, his demonic face browned with the brief kiss of the sun.   
  
"You first Fang Boy." she patted him on the head and walked back to the window. She pulled the tarp down and smiled as Xander broke into more frantic yelling. Fire began to catch on his hair and clothes. She placed the tarp on its place and mustered a sweet voice, "Now?"  
  
No answer.   
  
Buffy shrugged. She was about to pull down the tarp again when the male vampire cried out.   
  
"No! No! I'll tell you! Just…don't make with the 'let there be light' anymore ok?"   
  
The Slayer held up her hand.   
  
"Scout's Honor." she smirked.   
  
After Xander had told her what she wanted to know, Buffy went upstairs and ran into Oz. He looked at her silently. Then,  
  
"Ju Ju Bean?" he offered her an open box. Buffy shook her head in the negative.  
  
"I got him to talk. Grab some weapons and let's do it to it."   
  
"Buffy wait," Oz stopped her. The Slayer turned on her heel, a questioning look on her small face. "I uh…can we not kill the one upstairs?"  
  
Buffy regarded him with amazement. Then suspicion.   
  
"Why not? We don't need her anymore. We got what we needed." she crossed her arms, her nose twitching agitatedly. The little ring jangled.   
  
"I know, but I would like to…" he searched for a good lie. "Ya know, teach her a lesson. Make her regret dealing with the Oz-Man." Buffy rolled her eyes.   
  
"I'm not your boss. Do whatever you want with her and the one downstairs. I'm going to go and shower. You mind?" the Slayer didn't give the White Hat anytime to respond as she bounded up the stairs.   
  
"Go right ahead," he said to himself.   
  
***  
  
"Oh this is not good at all. It cannot be right." Giles said, bending over a book and squinting.   
  
"What's the deal Boss Man?" Oz asked. The rebellion met in the library, but even with all their members present, they could not fill the room. Larry, the gay football player was present, sharpening stakes and paying scant attention. Porter, one of the new recruits, was standing near Oz, acting strangely as he always did when the brown haired boy entered the room. Erika and Craig stood together, arms intertwined and faces masks of terror at the rebel leader's words. Buffy sat idly looking at the rows upon rows of books. Mostly every book she saw however, were either on combat or demonology.   
  
"Good family reading," she muttered to herself.   
  
"Well, if the information Buffy received is valid, then the home of the Master is the somewhere between the Bronze and the high school."  
  
"So what makes that a jagged little pill to swallow?" Buffy asked.   
  
"It's a broad range I'm afraid," Giles said impatiently.   
  
"Maybe this Master guy likes his leg room." the Slayer shrugged.   
  
"What if he's underground, and that strip are like sewers or something?" Porter suggested nervously.   
  
"Nice thinking Port-o." Oz commended. Porter flushed deep crimson in embarrassment.  
  
"Well, yes, that is a possibility, but it goes against logic." the librarian countered.   
  
"Tell us all about it Spock," Oz said.   
  
"Who?"  
  
"Nothin' Boss Man. Go on."  
  
"Quite. Yes, eh, the Master has been cramped up in the subterranean prison for centuries. Since the Harvest he has been loud, flashy, and does little to hide himself from public scrutiny."  
  
"Doesn't mean he's dumb though." Larry said.   
  
"Yeah, he could just be using the underground as a daytime hide out or something." Erika agreed.   
  
"Great, so we go in, open the windows, and the Master is Colonel Sanders-ified." the Slayer made for the door.   
  
"Sounds good on paper, but doubtless he will have sentinels." Giles interjected.   
  
"Then we'll kill them too." Buffy said, not bothering to turn back. The swinging doors closed and Giles sighed.   
  
"That girl is more trouble than she's worth." Larry said. "And besides, doesn't she know that army fatigues went out of style *months* ago?" the football player shook his head sadly. Cocking an eyebrow, Oz said,  
  
"Moving right along. Giles, does this sound doable?"   
  
Giles closed the book.   
  
"According to this, the sewers are littered with monsters that contain toxins in their touch and are vicious. If the Master has these creatures, these M'hak doing his bidding, then we will have much more difficulty. Our numbers are not yet strong enough to pull off this assault."  
  
"The Master's weakened, and we have a Vampire Slayer on our side now. I'd say the favors are seriously on our side." Craig said. "But then again I failed the probability portion of math class so what do I know?"  
  
"All right, we shall have one final confrontation with the Master. This girl, Buffy, is our only hope. That and our determination to take back Sunnydale, to take back our lives. If you are not ready for this, if not all of you are willing to put your hearts and souls into this battle, then all is lost."  
  
The collection of hardened teenaged rebels were solemn, looking at one another. It was possibly the last time they would see one another. Their hearts were leaden in their chests but at the same time they burned in anticipation. They could take back Sunnydale now, and they would not have to fight anymore. They could lay down their stakes and continue life as they should have before the Harvest. *But can we go back to that?* a nagging thought tugged at Oz's brain. *All I've known for these past two years are death and violence, killing or being killed.*   
  
"Oz? You ok man?" Porter asked, placing a hand on his slim shoulder. The brown haired boy looked up, startled out of his thoughts.   
  
"Yeah, good and golden. I'm gonna head out guys." he waved at his companions as he left.   
  
"Report back after school for weapons training!" Giles called. Oz shouted back an OK and continued onto the lunch court.   
  
***  
  
"They shall pay for what they've done to me," the Master of Vampires was saying. His face was still bleeding freshly, something that struck the Master as odd. The wounds kept flowing freely, but only the cuts given by the steel crucifix. His clawed fingers gingerly touched the tender cuts. He'd been ravenously hungry since the battle and called for another human. It would be his third in this hour alone, and it was only lunch time. He closed his aged eyes, not wishing to see the ugly gloom of the underground lair. He had done little to make the living space more comfortable, so it was only bare rock and metal from the pipelines. The smell was rancid but it didn't matter when one no longer had to breathe.   
  
One of his men brought the king a struggling boy of about fifteen. He had dark hair and dark eyes, so much like Xander's. He truly missed Xander, his favorite alongside the wicked Willow. Those were the two children he was proud of most. And those despicable humans have them captured. The Master lashed out and took the boy by the hair. He pulled him close and ripped his throat out, feasting on the stringy veins, the thick meats of his neck and shoulders. He drank thirstily of the heated blood and nearly swooned. He discarded the boy on the floor, a gaping red and black wound on what was left of his neck. His head lolled to the side, held to the rest of his body by a thin strip of flesh.   
  
"Take the scraps to the dogs," he ordered. The follower took the corpse and tossed it into the steel cage wherein the fledglings were kept. These were his special pets, victims he sired for the sole purpose of spite. Many, if not indeed all, were members of the White Hats or rebelled in some fashion. There was Ms. Calendar, a woman who covered as a teacher to get to Angel and use him to defeat the Master. She was currently fighting Cordelia Chase, a bothersome little twit, for the veins in the dead boy's wrist.   
  
"Send messengers and recruit the generals of my army." the Master commanded of his followers. "Yes, to defeat this Slayer I would need Spike, Drusilla, and Darla. Ah how nice it would be to have them with me again." he clapped his hands in delight and smiled, then winced as he inadvertently split a cut further. "Yes, they shall pay…" 


	4. The Good, The Bad, and The Bronze

Chapter Four: The Good, The Bad, And The Bronze Summary: Oz and the White Hats party at the Bronze before the assault on the Master/ Buffy analyzes her past and confronts demons that cannot be staked…   
  
"I think we should all go to the Bronze tonight," Craig was saying to Oz during math class. Oz leaned in and whispered back,  
  
"We're about to fight the Master and you want to do the hokey pokey?" he asked incredulously. Then, "Count me in."  
  
Craig smiled and pretended to be taking notes when the teacher looked in his general direction. Then, he turned to the fellow White Hat again.   
  
"I have an idea for a few more White Hat potentials."  
  
"Yeah? Who?"  
  
"See that girl over there? With the light brown hair?"  
  
Oz strained to see above the heavy set boy in front of him. He managed to catch a side view of Amy.   
  
"Why her?"  
  
"She's a Witch."  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"I saw her the other night, practicing some pyrokenetics on a vampire. She's bold and has the means to back it up."  
  
"Told Giles about her?"  
  
"Yep. He wants to meet her after school during training."  
  
"Cool. Who else?" Oz swallowed his words and faked a yawn as the instructor set eyes on him and Craig.   
  
"Would you two like to share your conversation?" Mrs. Johnson asked, folding her arms. Craig shifted uncomfortably.   
  
"We're just looking for recruits to join the White Hats. You can never have too many hormonally driven rebels fighting against vampires."  
  
Mrs. Johnson lifted a thin eyebrow and sighed. She turned back to the black board and continued her lesson.   
  
Craig dropped a paper on Oz's desk, instructing him to look three seats over to his left. The brown haired boy did and beheld the vapid splendor that was Harmony. He had to stifle a laugh, as she was filing her nails and shaking her slim leg impatiently. Oz turned to Craig.   
  
"You *cannot* be serious!" he whispered.   
  
"Look, Oz, she has resources and money. That, and motivation. Cordelia was killed by Willow and Xander, remember?"  
  
"Yeah." the brown haired boy said softly. He looked back to Harmony and tried to imagine her handling a stake or even a simple weapon like a cross bow. He almost fell out of his chair; the thought almost too hilarious to contain.   
  
"Fine, but I'm not asking her."  
  
"We'll have Larry do it." Craig responded.   
  
"Why Larry?"  
  
"He's a jock."  
  
"But uh, he's not playing for Harmony's team, if you know what I mean."   
  
"She doesn't know that." Craig smiled fiendishly. Oz agreed but thought to himself,   
  
The world *is* doomed if we need Harmony on our side…  
  
***  
  
Oz waded through the throng of teens dancing to the pulsating rhythms of a local band, Digital Disturbance. Dark techno thrummed in the club, setting Oz's bones to rattle. He walked gingerly, holding four cups in his hands. He came beneath the stairwell where his friends were chatting convivially on plus couches. He gave one drink to Craig, another to Erika, one to Larry, and the last for him.  
  
"Where's Porter?" Craig asked.  
  
"He said he'd be here a little later." Oz replied. Craig craned his neck to see past the brown haired boy. "Well the sun is setting so he better get here quick."  
  
"I know why he's not here yet…" Erika said with a smirk.   
  
"Yeah, me too." Larry said, sharing in the secret smile.   
  
"Well?" Craig and Oz asked simultaneously.  
  
"God, men are so oblivious." Erika rolled her eyes. "Oz, haven't you realized how Porter gets all flippy when you're in the same room?"  
  
"I just thought he had a nervous disorder or A.D.D." Oz shrugged. He sat down beside Larry.  
  
"You have much to learn of our ways Osborne." the football player said, slapping Oz on the shoulders.  
  
"Could someone please translate this Morse code?" Craig said with a hint of annoyance.   
  
"Porter has a crush on Oz!" Erika slapped Craig on the arm. "Isn't it crystal obvious?"  
  
"Wh-what?" Oz's brown eyes widened in disbelief. His mouth went dry and his hands felt clammy in contrast.   
  
"Yep, I knew Porter was a fag when I first saw him." Larry said. At times like these, the friends remembered how much Larry retained the vulgarity accumulated from years of playing contact sports.   
  
"It's cool, I guess. I wasn't expecting it." Oz looked down into his drink. "I think I need liquor." he got up and away from his friends. For some reason, his cheeks blossomed with embarrassment. Porter? Liking him?  
  
The thought alone did not bring disgust, nor anger. And that is what made Oz worry…  
  
And then he bumped into Porter.   
  
***  
  
The shadows were creeping, as though on amputated limbs, striving to reach the Slayer and consume her. Buffy was no stranger to their cold embraces, to their false securities. She sat huddled between a dumpster and a chain link fence. She was in some alleyway in the poorer part of Sunnydale.  
  
A lamp shed its pale copper light onto a photograph Buffy held in her small hands. A white gleam obscured the faded façade of Joyce Summers, made it hard for her to see her mother's arms locked around a younger, happier Buffy Summers. A vagabond tear slid down the Slayer's cheeks.   
  
She wiped it hurriedly away, as though it were molten fire. She didn't like to think about her past. But now, when the shadows loomed nigh, it was hard not to…  
  
Born in Los Angeles, Buffy Summers was carefree, having lived a life gilded in silk and designer fashions. She was part of the 'in-crowd' and had an occult following. But then, Merrick came into her life and with his mere presence, changed who Buffy was and molded who she would become.   
  
When Merrick died at the hands of an ancient vampire Buffy lost her only confidant and a dear friend. The emotional loss was so great that she forewent the policy of secrecy and told her parents the entire sordid tale…  
  
They shut her into a mental institution as soon as Buffy finished telling the story. Without her Watcher, without the support of her family, Buffy snapped. She escaped the institution and wandered the streets of L.A. for months. Then, she felt a powerful urge to migrate to a small town called Sunnydale. She was pulled there by some unknown force and was plunged into more blood shed, into a war for survival.   
  
Buffy was not a happy Slayer.   
  
The blond teen stood up and tucked the photograph into her pocket.   
  
All she had now was the gift of death. She didn't do it for humanity, but for herself. Every vampire had to pay, had to feel the pain she felt tenfold. Vampires had changed her life and Buffy would end theirs. 


End file.
